I know you're not supposed to come right out and say that, but what if it's true?
You see, the vast majority of people who contact Aquent looking for work will not be placed by us. This is especially true of folks who apply to jobs that we post online. When we looked at the numbers last spring, turns out that we placed around .6% of the people who applied for jobs posted online. That's slightly better than 1 placement for every 200 applications.
Of course, if you were referred to us, your chances improved, even while remaining relatively slim. We placed around 5.7%, or 1-in-18, of the folks who were referred to us. 1-in-18 odds are better than 1-in-200, but still far from a sure thing.
I'm bringing this up not because I want to discourage people - though our operations would certainly be more efficient if we were dealing with 99.4% fewer online applicants - but because I want to set realistic expectations. Some people who apply for jobs online may think of it as playing roulette (though the odds are worse), and don't really expect to "win," but I'm sure that most of them are actually looking for work and want the job for which they are applying. Unfortunately, as I've shown here, the chances are very good that they will be disappointed.
The challenge for us becomes: How can we disappoint a lot of people in a way that they feel OK about? My answer is: Make sure that they get something out of the interaction.
So, when we disappointed you, did you get anything out of it?
Image Courtesy of Erik Charlton.
I am curious about the 99.4% that don't get placed - is this a pure volume issue or are many of those applying for jobs for which they are not qualified.
As one of the 99.4%, I would prefer to save myself and yourself time by better understanding why some get through and most don't.
Hey Amrita -
As far as online job postings go, I think it's an ease of use issue that translates into a volume issue. After all, once you've registered with a Monster or CareerBuilder, applying for a job is just a click away. By making it easier to apply for jobs, I think people take more chances and apply for as many as they can, even if they are not entirely qualified.
This situation doesn't only or even primarily impact Aquent. I think it impacts every company that tries to recruit online by posting jobs on Monster, etc. For this very reason, many large companies use automated systems to screen applications. It's also the reason that people talk about optimizing your resume for keywords, etc. It's not so humans will notice you, it's so machines won't reject you.
My recommendation to anyone trying to find work at or through any company is that they avoid the online job app process altogether and focus on networking their way in. Aquent takes referrals very seriously, and, in fact, if you come to us via a referral, your chances of getting placed increase 10-fold. The effort it takes to form a personal connection with someone at a company will distinguish you from the crowd in countless ways.
The real issue as pointed out is in the mapping of requirements to the talent that is available. When automated tools are used for instance, very objective methodologies are used to rule in or rule out a candidate. If the job requires a person with 2 years of work experience, and there is a person with a year plus who is adequately capable of doing the job, unfortunately he will get shunted out of the system. To me the online mechanism should be a gateway to filter out the absolute undesirables - those who are applying in a shotgun kind of approach, just trying their luck. Once a largish shortlist is made, there has to be a telephone call to assess the candidate. Often I also find that "recruiters" are incapable of making that key decision simply because they themselves are for most part not exposed to the exact job requirements. Just my USD 0.02.
Thanks
Being chosen for any job is like being the needle in the haystack. There's a helluva lot of hay, but only one needle that needs to be found. Everyone should think about that the next time they apply for a job but don't get it.
I can only speak for the Chicago office of Aquent, but the recruiters here aren't doing this for the money, certainly not for the recognition and thanks (which they rarely get), but rather because every one of them is the type of person that truly likes to help others.
Some of us took a personality test that suggested we'd be happy in a 'giving' profession and it included recruiting/staffing!
Had they been more scientific, maybe they would have been nurses, but instead they found their way into recruiting.
They delight when the phone rings and one of our clients tells us that yes, they will hire Suzy as a contractor starting next Monday. A collective cheer goes up every time we fill a client's need and help get someone a job.
It's that feeling that motivates and drives them, and it's also what makes it so hard for them to NOT be able to help the other 25 people who asked to be given that same job Suzy got.
However, in the last year we WERE able to make 1,062 Chicago-area people happy - and that's 1,062 cheers that rang out here. It also means that we had reason to cheer 4 days each and every work week. Not bad.
Like all Aquent offices around the world, we do offer things other than matching companies with talent - the 'value-added' stuff. In addition to offering resume and portfolio advice, one of the things we do here in Chicago is host a large group called the Chicago Interactive Design & Development meetup group (http://webdesign.meetup.com/473/) with over 500 members.
We find industry-expert guest speakers for our monthly meetups and host the events for Aquent job seekers or anyone else who wants to attend - all for free.
I myself am involved with something called the Chicago Convergence, a grassroots movement of industry leaders who want to make Chicago the New Media capital of the world. This is going to help local talent, and that's why I'm volunteering my time and efforts.
I also started, on my own time, a Yahoo group called Creatives Over 50. I started the group to help senior level talent who were struggling with age specific issues. These included being caught in the middle of raising children and caring for ailing parents, dealing with age discrimination on the job, and overcoming all of the other challenges baby boomers face as they reach a certain point in life. The group has enabled individuals to support each other as they exchanged ideas, information, and contacts with other professionals. Several people even ended up finding new positions or freelance projects (not through me or Aquent) through this network.
So while the statistics our fabulous Minister of Enlightenment Matt Grant quotes sound brutal, I prefer to look at the 1,062 people we did help get jobs/contract work and the other things we do every day to help job seekers - and all free of charge, since those seekers don't pay Aquent a dime.
When we do get a thank you from someone, it makes our day!